this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2025
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Welcome to the first week of reading Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue by Leslie Feinberg!

Each week we'll read one chapter and discuss it in the comments. There are 8 chapters, and each chapter isn't too long, so this will be relatively light reading for most of you.

Also, THIS BOOK ISN'T JUST FOR TRANS PEOPLE. Obviously the book discusses trans issues, but as I've said before, it covers discussion on gender topics that would be relevant to basically everyone. So I highly encourage you to join if you're interested, regardless of whether you're trans or not.

To get started, here is a list of resources taken from the previous reading group session:

pdf download
epub download - Huge shout out to comrade @EugeneDebs for putting this together. I realized I didn't credit them in either post but here it is. I appreciate your efforts. ❤️
chapter 1 audiobook - Huge shout out to comrade @futomes for recording these. No words can truly express my appreciation for this. Thank you so much. ❤️
chapter 2 audiobook
chapter 3 audiobook
chapter 4 audiobook
chapter 5 audiobook
chapter 6 audiobook
chapter 7 audiobook
chapter 8 audiobook

Also here's another PDF download link and the whole book on ProleWiki.

In this thread we'll be discussing Chapter 1: We Are All Works in Progress.

CWs: Discussion of transphobia, abuse, SA. I should also mention since this came out in 1998, some of the language used might feel a little dated (specific language used is also a good topic of discussion imo).

I'll also ping a discussion list each week. Since this is the first week, the ping list will only include the few who've mentioned they're interested, but please let me know if you'd like to be added (or removed).

This is my first time doing something like this, so let me know if you have any feedback for me. Thanks!

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[–] AntifaSuperWombat@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Never thought I would join a reading group, but I’m really impressed by what I’ve read so far and the slow pace of 1 chapter per week is perfect for me.

So right off the bat, if we ignore the "transexual" I would have never guessed that this was written in the 90s, and it’s really nice to know that trans terminology was already pretty developed back then.

Also this part is really strong:

This doctor's prejudices, directed at me during a moment of catastrophic illness, could have killed me. The death certificate would have read: Endocarditis. By all rights it should have read: Bigotry.

Doctors are always so paranoid about getting sued for malpractice and usually do everything they can to prevent that. But when it comes to marginalized patients they suddenly don’t give a shit about being "professional" anymore, because they know that our lives are seen as worthless and that between a doctor, who is highly-respected by society, and a trans person most people (especially those in power) will always side with the doctor.

[–] buh@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Doctors are always so paranoid about getting sued for malpractice and usually do everything they can to prevent that. But when it comes to marginalized patients they suddenly don’t give a shit about being "professional" anymore, because they know that our lives are seen as worthless

this reminds me of how most Amerikkkans were serious or at least cautious about covid until research came out that it disproportionately affected PoC, then suddenly it was a "plandemic" and "just the flu"

[–] AntifaSuperWombat@hexbear.net 6 points 1 week ago

Fascists in Austria were also the first to call for lockdowns until they actually happened and immigration numbers plummeted as a result of that. They quickly needed a new scapegoat to rally against.

[–] XiaCobolt@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

It was serious when it was the "boomer remover"